While various communications standards have been designed with interference between base stations in mind, i.e., inter-base station also sometimes referred to as inter-cell interference, most communications standards were not designed with high density small cells in mind. In fact, most communications protocols such as LTE were designed with the idea of relatively large cells in mind where the base stations would be placed relatively far apart and with base station transmissions being from towers on ground with neighbor base stations also transmitting from similar towers at another ground location.
As the density of base stations increases, networks of wireless base stations may suffer from significant inter-base station interference. In many wireless protocols, the control channel is particularly susceptible to interference, which results in poor control channel signal quality.
In most systems, even though which may have contemplated small cells, the communications standards which are used often failed to contemplate interference from cells located above and below a base station in addition to the left and right of a base station. In the case where small cells may have been contemplated, such systems normally did not anticipate significant interference from above and below. The possibility of neighboring base stations vertically as well as horizontally, e.g., with interference base stations on all sides as well as above and below a base station was in most cases not designed for when standards developed many of the control channel structures currently in use for wireless transmissions.
Such a multi-directional interference situation is a situation which may occur in a multi-floor apartment building or multi-level office building in which small cells, e.g., femto base stations, may be deployed on floors above and below a femto or other small base station in addition to the sides of the base station on the same floor of the building.
As should be appreciated, a high density small cell deployment may result in interference from directions and in different amounts than was contemplated and expected for larger or lower density deployments than are encountered in high density small cell environments.
The loss of control channel messages, e.g., traffic channel resource assignment signaling, can be particularly detrimental to communications systems given that the failure of a device to receive a channel assignment message or traffic channel resource assignment message may result in the traffic channel resource going unused, and it can delay data communication between the device and the base station.
In view of the above it should be appreciated that there is a need for improved methods and apparatus for mitigating interference in wireless communications channels, e.g., control channels, in a wireless communications systems. It would be desirable, but not critical, if the methods and/or apparatus were well suited for use in high density small cell deployments and/or could be used to increase the chance of control signals being received as compared to some known systems designed for use by macro base stations.